Dale Family, my sincere condolences. Losing someone you love is never easy, and it’s even harder when their life feels cut short.
The Bible gives us real comfort at John 11:11, Jesus compares death to a peaceful sleep, and Jehovah promises to wake our loved ones again. Acts 24:15 reminds us of that beautiful hope of the resurrection. May this hope give you comfort and strength as you look forward to seeing John again.
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Here are the remarks (with a few edits) that I offered at the memorial:
Hi, my name is Martin Zwick. I first met John at a conference devoted to the writings of Gurdjieff, the All and Everything Conference that was held in Portland in 2018. One of the major figures in this spiritual tradition was J. G. Bennett, whose teachings John had actively engaged in, so in addition to his Baha’i and Esperanto associations, John was also a member of the Bennett Work community. I shared with him an interest in Bennett, and he also interacted with me professionally. Until 2024, I was a faculty member in the Systems Science Program at Portland State University, where I taught a course titled Systems Philosophy, which John attended and participated in. In 2023 my book Elements and Relations, which was the subject of this course, was published. One aspect of my intellectual work was to relate the ideas of Bennett and Gurdjieff to science, and some of this appears in my book. John helped me significantly in my book project, and I acknowledged this help in the Acknowledgment section of the book as follows:
"John Dale, also very knowledgeable about Bennett’s writings, is in a league of his own in his extraordinarily generous and professional assistance in editing this book and in his appreciation, despite the book’s flaws, of what I am trying to accomplish in it. His review of my manuscript addressed the full range of issues from fundamental conceptual questions to technical copy-editing. Unfortunately, the press of time prevented me from making use of more than a small fraction of his suggestions; many flaws that remain in this book are undoubtedly ones that he marked up as needing correction."
I maintained my friendship with John after my book was published, and have deeply enjoyed his unique combination of personal warmth and incredible generosity and his intellectual acuity, curiosity, and open-mindedness. If traditions are to be judged by the qualities of the people who have been nurtured by them, all three of the communities in which John has participated -- the Gurdjieff/Bennett community, the Baha'i community, and the Esperanto community -- gain much in repute from his identification with them. (The international/peace community should be added to this list, and perhaps there are even more!) Personally, I will miss him greatly as both a friend and colleague. To use words from the Jewish tradition, his memory is a blessing.
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I recall a few years back we celebrated our child's birthday. A terrible snow storm hit Portland. John Dale, who at the time shared a spiritual group with me, attended his birthday with his grandchild , never mind the snow and the difficulty getting there. He is and will continue to be one of the purest souls I have gotten to know. Wherever he is now, thank you for the teaching and for never ever giving up in your sharing of your presence, full of knowledge, wisdom, heart and soul.
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2024, Carson, CA, USA
John and friends at the 2024 “Lando Kongreso de Esperanto” (National Congress of Esperanto)
— with
John,
Myrtis Smith,
Chuck Mayes
and
Brenda Dau
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Two weeks before John passed away, I went to see him at the home where he spent the last few months of his life. As usual, he loved to hear a prayer or two, or have someone read to him an article about the world situation and world affairs, or something about Esperanto, or world peace. So, as usual I found a relevant article with me when I decided to go and visit with him. Little did I know that it was our last visit. As soon as I sat on the chair next time, I started reading the article. Towards the end, the article made a reference to a book written by a Baha'i scholar called Dr. Roya Akhavan, titled "Peace for our planet, a new approach". John asked me to buy this book and return to read it to him. I promised him that I would be happy to do that. He also asked me to make sure to be present at his memorial. I promised him that I would, but I told him that I believed he would live for a while, or at least until we finished reading the book. I went home and immediately ordered the book from Amazon.
A few days later, I had to travel to California to see my daughter. It was there when I received a text message from Kendra that John had passed away. It was such a shocking and at the same time heartbreaking for me. I had planned to see John as soon I returned home the following day, take him the book and read it to him. When I returned home, I opened the Amazon package, looked at the book and started reading it. Is John aware of the contents of the book? Can he hear it if I read it loud? These were the questions which popped up on my mind. Yes, I believe he would've loved this book because the book brings into focus the forward march of the constructive process tow
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